CHIMP SPANNER — At the Dream's Edge (review)

CHIMP SPANNER — At the Dream's Edge album cover Album · 2009 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
bonnek
Chimp Spanner is one of many of today's one-man progressive projects. Everything from writing to recording and producing is in the hands of Paul Ortiz, a 26 year old multi-instrumentalist. Often this sort of project suffers from the imballance between the artist's strengths on his main instrument and his shortcomings with other equipment. At the Dream's Edge avoids these traps with surprising ease and offers an outbalanced release boasting a self-confident attitude and outstanding songwriting skills.

The music is entirely instrumental and varies between diverse forms of progressive metal, starting out with a couple of melodious Prog Metal tracks before delving into more extreme/math metal territory with low-tuned guitars and capricious time signatures. At times this sounds like a slower instrumental version of Meshuggah, offering less aggression but more melody and heaviness. Ortiz' 7 and 8-string guitars have a great sonic range with lots of oomph! His soloing is rather jazzy at times and doesn't avoid challenging harmonies and striking dissonance when the song calls for it. On top there are some ambient influences offering resting points amidst all the riffing and shredding, all of this without losing momentum.

The quality of the material is consistently high and the entire album doesn't reveal one less inspired moment, offering a spontaneously flowing abundance of instrumental metal that is accessible and very diverse, both in tempos, arrangements and styles. I believe there's something here for every fan of progressive metal and heavy prog. Recommended!
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